Chatterbox Review: RAAM’s Shadow Gears of War 3 Add-on.

Oh it feels good to be back. This week, I just downloaded the Gears of war 3 add-on: RAAM’s Shadow… a prequel to the original Gears of War story.

First and foremost, this edition of DLC adds new characters to the mix in your multiplayer dealings. Not only will you get Kim and Tai remixes, but you’ll also get all new Michael Barrick and Alecia Valero for the COG side. For the Locusts, you will now be able to play as General RAAM remixed and the all new Elite Theron. Weapon skins added will be Chocolate, which is basically brown swirled. Also if you’re playing this Holiday season, be sure to check out the Mint and Candy Cane weapon skins. It’s sure to make your season bright!

As for the campaign prequel…

Wise-cracking Michael Barrick plays the role Marcus plays in the story. Instead of the COG, you’re fighting for the Zeta Squad. You start out in a Gears 1-like setting where things aren’t so destroyed, but the Locust are pressing the action, by flanking and more large villains. We also get a little history on Jace Stratton which I thought was kind of cool. For me, there were 3 “big fight” scenarios that we’re built with my favorite being the collision between Zeta and the Elite Theron. What a cool and unique character to deal with. The battle with RAAM was very lackluster for me. I played it on Hardcore and it took no time to complete once I figured out the pattern of things.

Speaking of RAAM…

For the first time, you get to control RAAM through a couple of scenes of the campaign. The initial run was very cool. He has his very own “Beast Mode” mechanism that unleashes the Kryll that evaporates the enemy with just a point of his finger. For fun, I call this, ‘The Cheese Touch’ (Diary of a Wimpy Kid anyone?)! There are a couple more levels of destroying walls, enabling the seeders to fill the sky with ink so the locust can unleash the Kryll so it kind of starts to feel a little routine and boring to an extent. As a tip, I would say to utilize RAAM’s sword charge to get you where you are going faster. RAAM walks slowly otherwise.

All in all, I thought it was pretty solid for DLC. It added an hour or so of extra gameplay, new multiplayer characters, and weapon skins. I didn’t care for Barrick’s wise cracking as I only like for Baird to make the jokes in the Gears franchise. I also can’t get over the fact that he resembles a white Kimbo Slice. That’s just funny! I was a little disappointed that Skorge was not featured in this one as well. For as tough as he was built up to be in Gears 2 (Marcus mentioned that Skorge made RAAM look like a whimp, or something to that effect), his battle scenes were very lame. I’m hoping a future DLC features him and a fitting battle that doesn’t include ride-ons.All in all, this DLC is worth it. It was fun for 90% of the time and you get some cool characters to use.

RAAM is still one of the baddest villains in any video game, period! He looks very intimidating and his initial battle in Gears 1 made the game for me! Great stuff!